Trends in ICT and Multimedia Supported Education

The formal educational system is facing different problems regarding adaptation towards the needs of a modern knowledge society. In the article, two important and comprehensive challenges to today's formal educational system are discussed and commented upon. The first problem is the incoherence between the needs of the labor market and formal education system outcomes in terms of graduated students. Another problem is the distancing between the prevailing traditional pedagogical methods within formal educational institutions and the ways in which students acquire information and knowledge outside of the schools as they are becoming less and less interested in traditional lectures. It is argued that specific information and communication system technologies (ICT) supported mechanisms, such as social learning and virtual communities may address these challenges. Theories of communities and social learning that may be useful for implementation in the education system are explained and practical implementation is proposed.